Mark Johnson (ice hockey)

For other people named Mark Johnson, see Mark Johnson (disambiguation).

Mark Johnson
Johnson at the 2010 Winter Olympics after the American women's loss to Canada in the gold medal game
Born	September 22, 1957 (1957-09-22) (age 54) Minneapolis, MN, USA
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	160 lb (73 kg; 11 st 6 lb)
Position	Forward
Played for	Pittsburgh Penguins Minnesota North Stars Hartford Whalers St. Louis Blues New Jersey Devils
National team	United States
NHL Draft	NHL, 1977 Pittsburgh Penguins
Playing career	1979–1990

Mark "Magic" Johnson (born September 22, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in Madison, Wisconsin) is a current ice hockey coach and former United States ice hockey player who appeared in 669 NHL regular season games between 1980 and 1990 after playing for the Gold medal winning 1980 US Olympic Hockey team. Johnson's son, Patrick Johnson, currently plays for the men's hockey team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Amateur career

Johnson played for the University of Wisconsin–Madison ice hockey team for three years under his father, legendary coach Bob Johnson. As a teenager he went to James Madison Memorial High School and was on the hockey team. In 1977, during his first year at the university, he helped the Badgers win the NCAA national championship. He was the first Badger ever to win WCHA Rookie of the year. He went on to become the school's second all-time scorer. Johnson was also a two time All-American. His brother, Peter, would also play at the university.

International and professional career

Olympic medal record
Men's ice hockey
Gold	1980 Lake Placid	Team
Women's ice hockey (as coach)
Silver	2010 Vancouver	Team

Johnson made his international debut with the United States national team as an 18-year-old in 1976, when he played in 11 training games for the 1976 US Olympic ice hockey team coached by his father. He would represent the United States in 13 international tournaments (including the 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990 Ice Hockey World Championship tournaments as well as the 1981, 1984 and 1987 Canada Cup). He is most famous for being a star player on the US Olympic Hockey team at the 1980 Lake Placid winter games. Playing for the United States Of America against the Soviet Union, Johnson scored two of the four goals in the Team USA 4-3 victory. He scored in the first period of the game, which directly led to the Soviet coach taking out his goalie Vladislav Tretiak, a questionable move because Tretiak was considered the best goalie in the world at the time. He also scored in the third period to tie the game at 3–3. The team would then go on to defeat Finland to capture the gold medal.

Johnson went on to play professional hockey in the NHL for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota North Stars, Hartford Whalers, St. Louis Blues, and New Jersey Devils. His NHL accomplishments include playing in the 1984 NHL All Star game as the Whalers representative as well as serving as the Whalers team captain in 1983–85. He also played two seasons with Milan Saima SG in Italy and a final season in Austria before retiring from the game in 1992. He briefly came out of retirement to play two games for Team USA in the 1998 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships qualifying tournament at the age of 41, where he helped Team USA retain its position in the World Championships' Pool A.

In 2010, Johnson led the USA Women's Hockey team to win a silver medal in the Vancouver games.

Coaching career

Johnson is currently the head coach of the University of Wisconsin–Madison women's ice hockey team, a position he has held since 2002. The team won its first NCAA national championship on March 26, 2006. They repeated as national champions in 2007, 2009 and 2011. Prior to coaching the women's team, Johnson was an assistant coach for the Wisconsin Badgers Men's hockey team from 1996 until 2002.

He served as an assistant coach for the men's team in 2000 and 2002. On July 6, 2006, he was named head coach of the American women's team as part of a general reorganization of the program, leading the women's hockey team to a silver medal at the 2010 Olympics.^[1]

In popular culture

Michael Cummings played Johnson in the 1981 TV movie Miracle on Ice.

Eric Peter-Kaiser portrayed him in the 2004 Disney film Miracle. Peter-Kaiser was playing college hockey for SUNY Potsdam when he got the part.^[2]

Honors and awards

• 2011 Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.^[3]

• Johnson was inducted into the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001 and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004.

• He completed his B.A. degree in kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin in 1994.^[4]

Awards and achievements

• Played in NHL All-Star Game (1984)
• WCHA Freshman of the Year (1977)
• WCHA First All-Star Team (1978, 1979)
• NCAA West First All-American Team (1978, 1979)
• WCHA Most Valuable Player (1979)

United States National Team Coach

• 2000 Men’s World Championship (Assistant)
• 2002 Men’s World Championship (Assistant)
• 2006 Women’s Four Nations Cup (Head)
• 2007 Women’s World Championship (Head)
• 2007 Women’s Under-22 Select Team (Head)
• 2008 Women’s Under-18 Select Team (Head)
• 2010 Women's Olympic Team (Head)

He was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.

Career statistics

                                  Regular Season
Season  Team                    Lge   GP   G   A    Pts  PIM

1979-80 Pittsburgh Penguins     NHL   17   3   5    8    4
1980-81 Pittsburgh Penguins     NHL   73   10  23   33   50
1981-82 Pittsburgh/Minnesota    NHL   56   12  13   25   40
1982-83 Hartford Whalers        NHL   73   31  38   69   28
1983-84 Hartford Whalers        NHL   79   35  52   87   27
1984-85 Hartford/St. Louis      NHL   66   23  34   57   23
1985-86 New Jersey Devils       NHL   80   21  41   62   16
1986-87 New Jersey Devils       NHL   68   25  26   51   22
1987-88 New Jersey Devils       NHL   54   14  19   33   14
1988-89 New Jersey Devils       NHL   40   13  25   38   24
1989-90 New Jersey Devils       NHL   63   16  29   45   12

                   NHL Totals         669  203 305  508  260

External links

• Audio interview with Mark Johnson from Wisconsin Public Television

See also

• Notable families in the NHL

Notes

1. ^ Johnson to Coach US Women's Hockey in 2010 Olympics Yahoo Sports, January 27, 2009
2. ^ Eric Peter-Kaiser biography at the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1371703/
3. ^ http://www.uscho.com/2011/09/20/wisconsin-duo-named-lester-patrick-award-winners/
4. ^ http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/w-hockey/mtt/johnson_mark00.html.

References

• Mark Johnson's biography at Legends of Hockey
• Mark Johnson's hockeydraftcentral.com profile
• Mark Johnson's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database
• Profile at Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame

Preceded by Russ Anderson

Hartford Whalers captain 1983-85

Succeeded by Ron Francis

Preceded by Trish Millines Dziko Bruce Furniss Virginia Gilder Stacey Johnson Gregory Kelser Kellen Winslow	Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA) Class of 2005 Mark Johnson Gary Lawrence Paul McDonald Greg Meredith Joan Benoit Samuelson Dave Stoldt	Succeeded by Valerie Ackerman Danny Ainge Charles Davis Terry Schroeder Mike Singletary Susan Wellington
Preceded by Ben Smith	American women's hockey team head coach 2006-present	Succeeded by Current

Persondata
Name	Johnson, Mark
Alternative names
Short description	American ice hockey player
Date of birth	September 22, 1957
Place of birth	Minneapolis, MN, USA
Date of death
Place of death